Conventionally, inkjet printers have been used to print an image onto printing paper by ejecting fine droplets of ink from a plurality of outlets of a head unit toward the printing paper while moving the printing paper relative to the head unit.
As one method for inkjet printers to resolve clogging or the like of the outlets of a head unit, purging is known in which pressure is applied to a flow path of ink in the head unit so as to push the ink out of the outlets. In order to prevent an increase in the viscosity of ink due to evaporation of moisture in the ink, for example, spitting in which ink droplets are ejected periodically is also carried out during standby before printing. Purging and spitting are generally conducted while the head unit vertically opposes a cap part disposed under the head part, and the ink ejected from the head unit is received by the cap part.
In an image recording apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2007-136989, an evacuation pump is actuated during maintenance of a recording head while the nozzle surface of the recording head is capped with an evacuation cap, so that ink is evacuated out of nozzles.
Incidentally, in the case where the aforementioned purging or spitting is performed, a spatter of ink that has collided with the bottom surface of the liquid receiving part of the cap part may be transformed into a mist, or a mist may be generated from flying ink droplets. Such an ink mist, if left as it is, may adhere to an ejection surface of the head unit in which the outlets are provided, or may be diffused into the inkjet printer. In view of this, an evacuation mechanism such as a fan is provided laterally to the liquid receiving part so that the ink mist is evacuated through the space between the ejection surface of the head unit and the bottom surface of the liquid receiving part and discharged to the outside.
However, in the case of a large inkjet printer in which the head unit and the liquid receiving part are also large, if an ink mist is sucked using a fan attached to one side surface of the liquid receiving part, the ink mist may be hardly sucked at positions distanced from the fan, although the ink mist can be sucked in the vicinity of the fan. In order to efficiently suck an ink mist in the entire liquid receiving part, it is conceivable to provide fans on other side surfaces of the liquid receiving part, but disposing fans on multiple side surfaces of the liquid receiving part is difficult because the head unit has a large number of pipes and wires connected thereto. Even if fans could be disposed on multiple side surfaces of the liquid receiving part, this in turn increases the size of the inkjet printer.